San Diego (California, USA), 24 May. (LaPresse/AP) – The runway lights were off, the weather warning system was not working and there was thick fog at San Diego airport when a Cessna 550 Citation aircraft attempted to land on Thursday but failed to reach the runway and crashed into houses, killing all six people on board. The accident occurred shortly before 4 a.m. local time. The plane was carrying a music executive and five other people. No one in the neighbourhood was killed, but eight people were treated for smoke inhalation and minor injuries. According to an audio recording of the conversation published by LiveATC.net, the pilot acknowledged that the weather conditions for landing at the small airport were not ideal and considered diverting to another airport while discussing visibility with an air traffic controller at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regional control tower. The FAA had issued an official warning to pilots that the runway lights were out of service, but it is not known whether the pilot had checked this. ‘It doesn't seem like a good idea, but we'll try,’ the pilot said at the end. The plane crashed about 3 kilometres from the airport.
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